Clay
consist almost entirely of clay.]] 'Clay ' is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals. Clay deposits are mostly composed of clay minerals, a subtype of phyllosilicate minerals, which impart plasticity and harden when fired or dried; they also may contain variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure by polar attraction. Organic materials which do not impart plasticity may also be a part of clay deposits. Formation city - Brazil. The picture is of Morro da Covanca - Jacarepaguá.]] Clay minerals are typically formed over long periods of time by the gradual chemical weathering of rocks, usually silicate-bearing, by low concentrations of carbonic acid and other diluted solvents. These solvents, usually acidic, migrate through the weathering rock after leaching through upper weathered layers. In addition to the weathering process, some clay minerals are formed by hydrothermal activity. Clay deposits may be formed in place as residual deposits in soil, but thick deposits usually are formed as the result of a secondary sedimentary deposition process after they have been eroded and transported from their original location of formation. Clay deposits are typically associated with very low energy depositional environments such as large lakes and marine deposits. Primary clays, also known as kaolins, are located at the site of formation. Secondary clay deposits have been moved by erosion and water from their primary locationEnvironmental Characteristics of Clays and Clay Mineral Deposits. Definition Clays are distinguished from other fine-grained soils by differences in size and mineralogy. Silts, which are fine-grained soils that do not include clay minerals, tend to have larger particle sizes than clays, but there is some overlap in both particle size and other physical properties, and there are many naturally occurring deposits which include both silts and clays. The distinction between silt and clay varies by discipline. Geologists and soil scientists usually consider the separation to occur at a particle size of 2 µm (clays being finer than silts), sedimentologists often use 4-5 μm, and colloid chemists use 1 μm. Geotechnical engineers distinguish between silts and clays based on the plasticity properties of the soil, as measured by the soils' Atterberg Limits. ISO 14688 grades clay particles as being smaller than 2 μm and silts larger. clay in Estonia.]] Grouping from Glacial Lake Missoula, Montana.]] Depending on the academic source, there are three or four main groups of clays: kaolinite, montmorillonite-smectite, illite and chlorite. Chlorites are not always considered a clay, sometimes being classified as a separate group within the phyllosilicates. There are approximately 30 different types of "pure" clays in these categories, but most "natural" clays are mixtures of these different types, along with other weathered minerals. Varve (or varved clay) is clay with visible annual layers, formed by seasonal differences in erosion and organic content. This type of deposit is common in former glacial lakes. When glacial lakes are formed there is very little movement of the water that makes the lake, and these eroded soils settle on the lake bed. This allows such an even distribution on the different layers of clay.Environmental Characteristics of Clays and Clay Mineral Deposits. Quick clay is a unique type of marine clay indigenous to the glaciated terrains of Norway, Canada, Northern Ireland and Sweden. It is a highly sensitive clay, prone to liquefaction, which has been involved in several deadly landslides. Historical and modern uses Clays exhibit plasticity when mixed with water in certain proportions. When dry, clay becomes firm and when fired in a kiln, permanent physical and chemical reactions occur. These reactions, among other changes, cause the clay to be converted into a ceramic material. Because of these properties, clay is used for making pottery items, both utilitarian and decorative. Different types of clay, when used with different minerals and firing conditions, are used to produce earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay, and one of the earliest artifacts ever uncovered is a drinking vessel made of sun-dried clay. Depending on the content of the soil, clay can appear in various colors, from a dull gray to a deep orange-red. Clay tablets were used as the first writing medium, inscribed with cuneiform script through the use of a blunt reed called a stylus. Clays sintered in fire were the first form of ceramic. Bricks, cooking pots, art objects, dishware and even musical instruments such as the ocarina can all be shaped from clay before being fired. Clay is also used in many industrial processes, such as paper making, cement production and chemical filtering. Clay is also often used in the manufacture of pipes for smoking tobacco. Until the late 20th century bentonite clay was widely used as a mold binder in the manufacture of sand castings. Clay, being relatively impermeable to water, is also used where natural seals are needed, such as in the cores of dams, or as a barrier in landfills against toxic seepage ('lining' the landfill, preferably in combination with geotextiles).[http://www2.widener.edu/~sxw0004/abstract34.html Preliminary evaluation of a compacted bentonite / sand mixture as a landfill liner material (Abstract)] - Koçkar, Mustafa K.; Akgün, Haluk; Aktürk, Özgür; Department of Geological Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey Recent studies have investigated clay's absorption capacities in various applications, such as the removal of heavy metals from waste water and air purification. Medical and agricultural uses A traditional use of clay as medicine goes back to prehistoric times. An example is Armenian bole, which is used to soothe an upset stomach, similar to the way parrots (and later, humans) in South America originally used it.http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Diamond_99.html Evolutionary biology: Dirty eating for healthy living by Jared M. Diamond A more recent, and more limited, use is as a specially formulated spray applied to fruits, vegetables and other vegetation to repel or deter codling moth damage, and at least for apples, to prevent sun scald. A recent article in The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy found that certain iron-rich clay was effective in killing bacteria.http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/61/2/353 Broad-spectrum in vitro antibacterial activities of clay minerals against antibiotic-susceptible and antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens See also * Bentonite * Ceramic * Clay (industrial plasticine) * Clay animation * Clay court * Clay minerals * Clay pit * Geophagy (eating of soils, including eating of clay) * Expansive clay * Graham Cairns-Smith, proposed the 'clay theory' of abiogenesis * List of minerals * London Clay * Modelling clay * Paperclay * Particle size * Plasticine * Pottery * Vertisol Footnotes References * * Clay mineral nomenclature American Mineralogist. *Ehlers, Ernest G. and Blatt, Harvey (1982). 'Petrology, Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic' San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-1279-2. *Hillier S. (2003) Clay Mineralogy. pp 139–142 In: Middleton G.V., Church M.J., Coniglio M., Hardie L.A. and Longstaffe F.J.(Editors) Encyclopedia of sediments and sedimentary rocks. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. External links *Building the Phyllosilicates University of New Hampshire *The Clay Minerals Group of the Mineralogical Society *Historical information about the clays of North Staffordshire, UK * Information about clays used in the UK pottery industry *The Clay Minerals Society *Plasticity of clay *Organic Matter in Clays Category:Sculpture materials Category:Natural materials Category:Sedimentology Category:Sediments Category:Silicate minerals Category:Types of soil Category:Ceramic materials ar:صلصال an:Archila (sedimento) ay:Llink'i laq'a be:Гліна be-x-old:Гліна bs:Glina bg:Глина ca:Argila cv:Тăм cs:Jíl da:Ler de:Tonminerale et:Savi el:Άργιλος es:Arcilla eo:Argilo eu:Buztin fa:رس fr:Argile fy:Klaai gl:Arxila hr:Glina (tlo) io:Argilo id:Lempung is:Leir it:Argilla he:חרסית ht:Ajil lv:Māls lt:Molis hu:Agyag ms:Tanah liat nl:Klei ja:粘土 no:Leire nn:Leire pl:Glina pt:Argila ro:Argilă qu:Ch'aqu ru:Глина sq:Deltina scn:Argilla simple:Clay ss:Lubumba sk:Íl sr:Глина sh:Gline fi:Savi sv:Lera tl:Luwad th:ดินเหนียว tr:Kil uk:Глина ur:سفال vec:Crèa vi:Đất sét vls:Klyte bat-smg:Muolis zh:黏土